I wish I could be all witty and funny and say what a great year 2015 has been or share with you some wonderful standout things. Although 2015 has been a great year, we haven’t had one great event or been on one mega holiday. We haven’t travelled the world, but we have had some super experiences. What 2015 has taught me is to keep on keeping on. There have been challenging times, there have been sad times, but equally there has been some drop dead funny times too.
So here goes my review of 2015 with some of my favorite posts of the year thrown in for good measure
January
January was a month of LEGO building, crafting during the dark nights and lots of delicious food. It also brought a trip to London to learn some coding with Barclays Code Playground and saw the MiniMads featured in both the Daily Express and on the BBC Website.
February
February for us is filled with love and heart crafts, but also pancake day – whoop! Pancakes always go down well in The Mad House, in fact we are firm believers in them being a food group all of their own! We also made cake case daffodils, which I think are one of our favorite crafts of the year and they still grace my desk.
March
March saw Maxi turn double digits to ten years old. I still can not get over the fact that he is going to Senior school this year! He celebrated with a football cake, pizza and a sleepover. He also took over the crown of master baker with his magnificent carrot cake. We celebrated Easter with family and Easter bonnets.
April
April was a quiet month in the Mad House. We spent it cooking and making the most of the weather with lots of outdoor play. Our first BBQ of the year took place too! Oh, but I did get to go and test drive the new Ford C Max in Majorca and fell in love with the island.
May
I gave you a tour of the Mad House in May and we decided to try and do an act of kindness a day over the summer (we didn’t achieve it, but we tried). We also started working with Fab lollies.
June
My little whirlwind Mini turned nine in June, so I made him a football pinata to kick round the garden, there was no way I was giving him a stick! We celebrated with a weekend break with Forest Holidays at Sherwood and both of the boys loved the hot tub and the fact that we could take Alvin. We also went Minions mad like the rest of the country!
July
Oh July I love you, the start of the school holidays always makes me happy. A Mini Muddah for the boys and their besties made their month, I taught the boys all about parabolic curves, which was maxi’s favorite art project of the year, or should that be math project?
August
August was a fun filled month for us, with an annual trip to Blackpool and an overnight at Whipsnade Zoo, which was amazing. We spent days at the park and the beach playing tennis and football. Mini tried his hand at BBQing and we had fun at the summer Gala. We even managed to cram in a trip to Alton Towers. It wasn’t all plain sailing though and I shared the horror of everyone staring at you when your child misbehaves.
September
September means back to school, the last year of Primary for Maxi. It also meant exploring options for senior school and making the decision and putting in the application. We will be keeping our fingers crossed until March when we find out whether he has his first choice. We continued our year of cooking with kids and despaired when England were so pants in The Rugby World Cup.
October
I finally got my hands on my MAD Blog Award – I was delighted when in September I won Craft Blog of the Year. I may have even shed a couple of of tears. We were in full flow of the Junior Football season and Maxi’s team were winning and performing well. We got all excited for Halloween and made lots of spooky crafts. We ended the month with an amazing visit to Potters Leisure Resort, which the boys are already pestering me to rebook for 2016!
November
A month of fireworks and remembrance. November is the month that I try to get organised for Christmas, so that we can spend December relaxing (if only it worked)! Both the boys had outstanding school reports making me very proud of them. We enjoyed watching Maxi play football and I had a trip to London for my first Institute of Inertia panel meeting.
December
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December is a bittersweet month for me, filled with the joy of Christmas, but also the loss of my Mum five years ago. I try to fill the month with acts of kindness. This December has been good to us with very mild, although very wet weather. We have made lots of Christmas crafts, gifts and bakes and spent a lot of time with our loved ones.
Aaaaw I do like this Jen – such happy family memories to look back on x x
Great review of the year! Hope you have a lovely 2016 x
What a great year and I hope the next is even better
Ah some lovely moments to treasure. Wishing you all a very Happy New Year xx
A good year even if there aren’t the stand out holidays and the like. Great to win the award too.
I do love the posts looking back as I think pretty much everybody manages to find and remember the fun things that have happened. Hoping 2016 is a happy and calm one for you all x
It’s always fab to look back on our year – we end up realising we did more fun things than we thought!
What a fab round up of your year! Great memories xxx
Lovely round up and I clapped and cheered so hard when your name was called out at the MADS….it would have been so lovely to have met you in person there. It sounds like it’s been an amazing year – have a fantastic 2016!